Home Sewn, Home Made, Home Grown: Luxury Christmas Stockings from scraps

Hello, well as usual I have left my Xmas preparations until the last minute, so here I am sewing Xmas stockings for gifts to send to family with barely time to get them in the post in time for Xmas eve!

My philosophy is to make and up-cycle out of things I already have. Being a keen sewing fan, I do have lots of scrap fabric and old clothes that I keep just in case they might come in handy for a project. Also, I cannot resist vintage sales and fabric sales. My sewing box is full of bits of ribbon, buttons, bows and bells that I have bought for a few pence or pounds to use one day in the future. My other habit is to cut off ribbon and cord handles from smart paper bags after shopping expeditions. Stores like Molton Brown and Victoria Secrets are good examples of 'smart bags' that can be taken apart and used for other things.

Step one in my Xmas stocking project was to look through my bits and pieces, put them in a pile and pick out the fabrics and ribbons that would be suitable for the end product.

With the person in mind that I am making this stocking for, and because I had fabric that fitted the image I had in mind, I was able to choose fairly traditional looking fabrics.
The pattern for the stockings is simply a boot or stocking shape, drawn onto brown paper, with seam allowances added. If you don't have brown paper, use newspaper making sure you use a pen or pencil that will show up against the print.

The main body of the stocking. The red moleskin fabric was left over from a project I worked on years ago.

These pieces add detail to the finished stocking, making a cuff and toe piece. The fabric is a type of fur fabric, and as you can see, it is just some scraps that I kept.

The pieces cut out ready for transferring the pattern markings.

Snipping the fabric to show pattern markings.
Using the pattern markings, it is now time to place the details onto the main stocking piece, ensuring that they match front and back, then pin in place.

To make the construction as simple as possible, I add a border of ribbon as shown in the picture above then sew in place along the top and bottom edge of the ribbon.

Don't worry about sewing the toe and cuff trim in place as the ribbon will hold it perfectly well at this stage.
Once the ribbon is sewn in place, put the two stocking pieces, right sides together and pin.

Making sure that the ribbons and edges are all matching, and the edges pinned as shown, you are now ready to sew the two pieces together.

Once sewn, remove the pins, trim and clip the seams. Be careful not to trim too close to the stitching or to clip the stitches when you snip into the curves.

Now turn the right way through and press the seams. Make sure you ease out the toe of the stocking to a sharp point. I find it helps to push the toe out from the inside with the nose of closed scissors, then ease out the rest when it is turned the right side out with a pin. The turning through and the pressing of the seams, if done properly, helps to give a professional finish.

Now, cut lining using the same pattern piece as for the main stocking.

The fabric I used is a piece of satin that I had left over from doing some work on a wedding dress.

When the the lining has been cut, just round off the toe to make turning out easier. As this is the lining, the toe won't be seen.

Sew these pieces together but make sure you leave a gap in the stitching along one of the straight seams as this will be where the stocking is turned through when the lining has been stitched to the main piece.

You now have two pieces to sew together. You will have pressed the lining in the same way as you did the main piece.

At this point, cut a piece of ribbon for hanging the stocking when it is finished. Pin it to the main piece along the back seam. Ensure that it is hanging down the outside back of the stocking. With right sides together, pin the lining to the main stocking along the top edge.